


Malcolm Gets Shot

by WhumpTown



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Malcolm Bright Needs a Hug, Malcolm Bright Whump, Malcolm Bright has daddy issues, Malcolm Brigth has issues, Suicide Attempt, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 11:50:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20852966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhumpTown/pseuds/WhumpTown
Summary: Prodigal Son has now had two episodes and both were full of whump. I. Am. Living.





	Malcolm Gets Shot

**Author's Note:**

> Prodigal Son has now had two episodes and both were full of whump. I. Am. Living.

So many shots ring out at first that Malcolm compensates the weird sting in his chest as panic. He takes a step forward, wanting to watch as the other’s check and make sure this bastard is really dead. He can’t bring his right foot up as high and it catches the roads hard earth, nearly sending him flat on his face.

Subconsciously, he runs a hand over his side and he looks down at the wet in his hand. His own blood stares back at him. He presses his hand firmly against the now stinging wound and keeps moving. 

“Did you see that Bright?!” Dani stands in front of him, her face lit up with a smile and the police cruiser lights. He finds that he likes her. She’s tough as nails, just like Gil said. He still hasn’t thanked her for not letting the cops at the precinct shoot him while he was having his little episode. “That was fucking awesome!” She taps his shoulder gently with her fist,” _you_ were awesome, man.”

The pain in his side is unbearable. His hand trembles against his side but he manages a smile. He really needs to be normal, to fix his little accident, so he smiles. He finds it’s not that hard to do it around her. “Th-” someone bumps into him from behind and his field of vision goes white. It’s searing. His right knee gives out from underneath him.

“Bright?” 

The world goes black.

Dani falls to her knees with a soft gasp. For a second time, she’s gathering Bright into her arms and holding him against her. She brings her hand down his body, searching for a wound. She finds it, drawing her hand back and finding it covered in his hot, sticky blood.

She presses her weight into the wound on his stomach. Tears stream down her eyes and she should have known this is how it would all end. Men don’t just come into her life and leave peacefully. They throw the vases full of their declarations of love at her head and she looks at them through the water streaming down her face. Their knuckles flash crimson and when it’s her blood, it’s her fault.

“That’s not good.” He’s looking up at her, his blood staining his teeth. He brings a trembling hand just above hers. His eyebrows crease and he makes a choked sound in the back of his throat, a pained gasp.

She bats his hand away,” don’t. It’s just a scratch.”

He smiles, it’s soft and curious. “That’s… You’re comforting me. D-Don’t worry about me Dani, Gil he-he won’t be mad with you. It’s-It’s how we both knew this would end.” He gags, hardly the strength to spit the blood pooling in his mouth out. It trails down the side of his cheek. “Re-Remember what I said? I-I deserve the-” 

“Malcolm!” Gil falls to his knees, right beside Bright’s head. He picks Bright up, pushing Dani aside and scooping up Bright’s lanky body in his arms. It hurts to watch Bright be lifted limply, his head lulling with Gil’s body as they move. “I gotcha, kid. Don’t bail out on me now. Come on, Malcolm.”

Dani watches Gil jog to the ambulances, Bright’s head against his shoulder looking up at nothing. He can’t die. She’s only just met him. He needs to be around a little longer, she needs to be absolutely put up with him. She needs to have a conversation with him that doesn’t involve him passing out or freaking out. 

\---------------

_“You’re a bright boy,” Jackie cups his cheek softly. Her palm warm against his fevered skin, he leans into the touch. Feverishly seeking out human contact he brings his knees closer to his chest, curling his long body around Jackie’s small one. “Shh, shh, little one.”_

_She runs her hand through his hair, frowning down at him. “Gil?”_

_Her husband sits in the visitor's chair, arms crossed against his chest and anger seething in his eyes. He glances up at her before looking away. He hasn’t said much since they arrived at the hospital. She knows he’s frustrated with Malcolm's mother, not Malcolm himself. Not that the poor boy could come to that conclusion on his own. _

_He sighs, deeply and looks up at her. His hands together on his stomach, he glances down at Malcolm’s lanky body and back to her. “She must have known, Jackie. I knew, dammit. I knew something was wrong and she did nothing. How could she- her own son? He…” Gil looks away, his hand coming to hide his mouth as he rubs his beard tiredly._

_Jackie runs her thumb against his chin, smiling at the small amount of facial hair he’s just beginning to grow. “I know, Gil.” She looks down at this boy in her arms, the closest thing she and Gil ever get to kids of their own. “He doesn’t need your anger right now. He just needs you.”_

_Gil nods, clearing his throat. “I know. I just can’t believe…” Gil looks at Malcolm, the dark bags under the boy's eyes, the trembling hand gripping Jackie’s jacket, and frowns. “I wish there was more I could do. Go back and make it so he never even knew his son of a bitch father but…” Gil clears his throat, roughly wiping his eyes on his sleeve. “I’m going to grab us all some lunch, I’ll be back in a minute.”_

_Jackie was the only person home when the call came through. Malcolms shallowing breathing on the other line greeted her and his unmistakable, terrified whisper that he’d done something bad. That he was sorry. Jackie didn’t need Malcolm to explain much more than that, she and Gil both saw his self-destructive tendencies beginning to turn to something dangerous. _

_“G-Gil?” The boy in her arms squirms in his sleep, his fist tightens around Jackie and he whimpers. His eyes fly open and his eyes fly to the chair Gil had occupied. A small sob breaks from his mouth and Jackie’s heart breaks for him._

_“Shh,” she tucks his hair behind his ears. “Gil’s just gone to get us some food. Think you can stomach some jello?” _

_For a month, he’d taken the pills he was supposed to be taking each night to help him sleep and pilled them up. Before today he had a fistful that he kept under his pillow when his mother and sister left for a trip to France, he took them all. _

_Jackie got him from his house, finding him on the floor just by the front door waiting for her. He was half-lucidly sobbing. Kept apologizing because as soon as he’d done it he regretted it. He didn’t want to die, he just wants all the voices, all the people, the whole world to stop being so damn loud._

_They pumped his stomach. _

_His mother said she’d be back at the end of the week as planned, she didn’t have time to deal with Malcolm’s fits right now._

_“Green?” There’s just a hint of her Malcolm in those hopeful blue eyes. He shivers in her arms, now a little more awake than he had been before._

_“Probably, you know Gil,” she smiles and Malcolm does too. “He’s a big softy. He probably knows all your favorite meals by heart.” God knows she did._

“Jackie?” He opens his eyes and he’s hit with noise from every corner. He can feel his heartbeat, the wound on his side throbs at the same pace the monitor beeps. He looks around, feeling the cool hospital air and wincing at the antiseptic smell of the place.

“Malcolm.” Gil hadn’t called him by his first name… He keeps calling him ‘Bright’. Perhaps there was a certain bit of resentment in the name Malcolm had chosen. It was kind of Jackie’s idea, after all. She always called him her ‘bright boy’ and when it came time to change his name… no other name seemed to fit. 

“Gil?” Malcolm runs the hand-tying him to the IV over his face. He’s confused. “Jackie? She was… I don’t… Gil?” There are tears in Malcolms eyes and he clouded part of his brain is telling him it’s morphine but everything hurts. He brings a trembling hand over the bandaged wound on his side. “G-Gil?”

Gil takes his other hand, gripping it tightly. “Look at me, kid.” Malcolm does as he’s told,” you’re okay. You’re in the hospital. Do you remember what happened?”

Malcolm tries to sit up, to see around Gil so that he finds Jackie. “I-I…” Malcolm cries out, his side throbbing. “I took the pills?”

Gil shakes his head,” you were shot. Dani was with you, do you remember that?”

Yeah, yeah he remembers that. He tracks the movement in the corner of the room until a teary-eyed Dani steps forward. She comes to stand on the other side of the bed, just opposite of Gil. She sniffles and hits him, hard, on the shoulder. It jostles the wound but he contains a pained grunt. “Don’t. You. Ever. Do. That. Again.”

He looks up at her, the concern burning in her eyes. 

He adds her to the list. The list of people he lives for. If he treats life like a case then he remains just curious enough that he doesn’t always want to swallow a cup of sleeping pills. On days when he can’t keep a single thing down when he’s dizzy and has gone days without sleep the list keeps him going. He won’t die today because the list would be heartbroken.

He breathes for the list.

He eats for the list.

He sleeps for the list.

It’s Gil’s sad eyes after the pill incident. The frustration burning in his mother’s eyes each time he sees his father because she knows his health will take the burden for his father’s selfish love. Ainsley silently begging him to take another bite of food so she doesn’t have to bail him out of the hospital when his blood sugar plummets and he passes out. Now… it’s thinking twice before he rushes into a building because he can’t stand to see Dani’s teary eyes looking down at him. 

He can do that. He can live. If not for himself then surely for them.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I want to just whump Malcolm to kingdom come and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas about how I should hurt him next?


End file.
